Back-country beauty This home takes cues from its surroundings

THIS STUNNING ARCHITECTURAL HOME DRAWS INSPIRATION FROM ITS HINTERLAND SURROUNDS AND THE OWNERS’ NOSTALGIC MEMORIES OF THEIR RURAL ROOTS

With an undulating access road almost a kilometre long, traversing creeks and winding past duck ponds and pockets of rainforest, it’s a real journey to get to Randy and Brenda’s home in the Sunshine Coast hinterland. Anticipation builds at every turn, before their striking architectural home, nestled on the side of an escarpment on the site of a former pineapple and citrus farm, is finally revealed. “When we pulled up at the front with the real estate agent, Brenda just got this look in her eyes and I thought, ‘Uh oh, I’m done for now!’” recalls Randy. “It was a much larger block than we’d been looking for and it didn’t have ocean views, it faced west. But just like Brenda, I could see it was really special.” So special, in fact, that the couple, who were living in Melbourne at the time, had to fly back to Queensland to have an interview with the owner of the block, who wanted to meet prospective buyers. “I think he wanted to make sure we’d be good custodians, and fortunately he agreed to the sale,” says Randy. The area’s rolling green hills reminded Randy of his homeland of Colorado in the US, while for Brenda, who grew up on a sheep and wheat farm on Queensland’s Darling Downs, the prospect of moving north to build their dream home felt like a return to her rural roots. The couple were keen to build a home that would sit comfortably within the natural landscape, and enlisted local architect Dan Sparks of Sparks Architecture to tackle their challenging brief. “Randy and I are very different, so the house had to draw together a lot of ideas,” explains Brenda. “Randy was keen for something very open, and I wanted something that resembled a shearing shed with lots of tactile elements. Amazingly, Dan just ‘got’ us, and the first mud map he drew up on site is pretty much what we went with.” The finished result, designed as two pavilions, is far more luxe than a sheep shed. A natural thread runs through the split-level home, with textural rammed-earth walls, wide spotted-gum floors and chunky timber beams, studded with industrial-style bolts. One pavilion hosts the guest quarters, overlooking a pool and a sea of trees, while Randy and Brenda spend most of their time in the lower pavilion, where a run of glass sliding doors gives the open living, kitchen and dining area unimpeded views across mountain ranges. For the interiors, the couple found working with Martine Blair of Zooi Design invaluable. “We had a Federation house in Melbourne, so we basically started again with new furniture and pieces throughout,” explains Brenda. “Martine was a wonderful mediator who brought together Randy’s and my different ideas.” Now, almost two years since the house was completed, the couple have embraced a complete change of lifestyle. “We’ve both retired since moving here, and Randy has swapped his company car for a tractor,” says Brenda. “We’re regenerating vegetation where we can, and although the property is more work than we imagined, it’s really satisfying. Living here really connects with something within me.”